


Scenery

by angelthefunone



Series: Crimson Snow [3]
Category: Tokyo Ghoul, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Not K-Pop Idols, Alternate Universe - Tokyo Ghoul, Gen, Ghoul!BTS, Kim Taehyung | V-centric, Mentioned Kim Namjoon | RM
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-23
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2019-11-28 19:14:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18212450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelthefunone/pseuds/angelthefunone
Summary: Taehyung explores Tokyo in daylight for the first time.





	Scenery

**Author's Note:**

> A repost, just to distinguish which ones are part of the main series/present events and which ones are the little snippets of stories from their past and present. And also I can add the appropriate tags to the appropriate works.
> 
> Anyway, there's no fight scene for once. Yay.

Tokyo is a big city.

It's bigger than Seoul, with all of its 23 wards, and Kim Taehyung, during the one-and-a-half years that he's been living here, had yet to explore them all.

Then again, it wasn't like he's ever had that much time to go out and take a tour around the city; he spent his first year here trapped within the confines of the walls of a heavily-guarded building, his movements being monitored at all times, and had only ever left the building if the executive he had to work under assigned a mission to the group he was appointed him since the day he joined the largest ghoul organization in Tokyo—Aogiri Tree, which the public media also happened to label as terrorists, and one of the major threats to the city's more unremarkable citizens.

Of course, Taehyung didn't know any of that, nor did he care much about the world outside those walls for most of his time there. Once he did get the chance to go outside, he had little time to appreciate his unfamiliar surroundings, taking in the sights that his home country could not offer—cherry blossoms were a definite favorite of his. After some time, he even started to miss just being  _ outside _ —he missed being able to climb up to the rooftops just to stargaze, and snow days during winter when he could make snow angels and build snowmen and  _ attempt  _ to build a fort once, when he was a lot younger and just a mere carefree child, surrounded by his beloved family.

And all he had left of that family was just his older brother Namjoon, who took most of their burdens on his shoulder, and had been the one to take the initiative to escape the hellhole that was Aogiri's base, putting them through yet another hell, but a little more bearable than last time.

But still, that did not mean Taehyung had the freedom he had longed for so much during his time with Aogiri.

Namjoon, whilst being a good person at heart, could be a bit too overbearing sometimes; he never let Taehyung wander too far outside of the safehouse, especially when Namjoon was out hunting for food, making sure to lock the front doors before he left. The elder brother said it was for his safety—Aogiri was still out looking for them, after all—and made sure to kept Taehyung occupied for the most part while he's gone, including setting up cable television for the younger brother, and sometimes bringing home a couple of volumes of manga whenever he found any after Taehyung was able to read most Japanese characters. Taehyung appreciated his brother's efforts, but of course, being trapped in the house all the time was not the life he signed up for when he went with Namjoon in the first place.

Understandably, Namjoon was the oldest out of the two and had been looking after him since the two were just left all on their own, but Taehyung wasn't going stay a child forever—he was already sixteen when they first moved here, and from what he's heard, thirteen years old was the age of consent in Japan, which meant he would be considered a capable adult on his own even at that age. Two years had passed since, but it seemed as though those years were mere days in the mind of his brother, and nothing much had changed since the past half a year that they've been living on their own.

So, of course, Taehyung had to take matters into his own hands.

Though he was trapped in yet another building, it was broken and rundown, having gone through years without undergoing any maintenance, in the more abandoned section of the ward. The door was locked but that didn't mean the windows were—boarded off, sure, but he was a  _ ghoul _ , and he didn't even need to use his strength to pull the wooden boards off the nails driving them into the wall and putting them in place. The first time he got this idea, he went over to one of the windows in the second floor, tearing the boards off with ease, allowing some sunlight to flood into the darkened room and soot and dust to burst like spores into all directions of the room, causing him to cough for a little bit.

But once the dust had settled, streams of fresh air began to flood into the room as well, filling his lungs with a sense of relief that he hadn't felt in  _ ages _ . Gazing out the opening in the wall now, there was another building just adjacent to the safehouse, tall enough that it towered over their home, but peering over the side, he could obtain a glimpse of the outside world—the blue skies, white clouds, yellow sun, silver uneven skyline consisting of buildings of different shapes and sizes and heights, the horizon extending beyond their ward and beyond Tokyo.

It was a beautiful sight, he decided, and it was a beautiful world out there, and he was going to make the most of what little freedom he attained for himself to explore as much of it as he could.

He might've never been outside in Tokyo for long periods of time before—especially in broad daylight—but he still remembered fleeting moments during his childhood, when his mother would hold his right hand and his brother would hold his left hand, walking down the streets of Geochang or Seoul. He remembered looking around, identifying the others walking past them being...  _ different  _ than what he was, than what his family was.

And if he could restrain himself then, despite knowing full well that all those unfamiliar faces surrounding him smelled an awful lot like the meals his mother would prepare for him to eat, then he could restrain himself now.

And Taehyung had to admit that so far, he's been managing himself quite decently, so to speak. He walked amongst the crowds appearing like another young citizen, in his hoodie and sweatpants, strolling down the streets and taking in the sights and smells and noises around him. It was surreal at first—he felt like a child in a candy shop, often stopping in the middle of the street just to take a good look at his surroundings; the tall, massive buildings towering over him, the LED lights flickering on billboard signs, the voices of a thousand people with lives far too different from his, the cars zooming past him down the street.

It was like seeing the world through a different eye, and one taste of it made him addicted for more.

So, what was supposed to be a one-time little field trip became frequent visits to the outside world. He made sure to explore different parts of the city each time, sometimes using shortcuts that weren't accessible to normal humans to make sure he had enough time to explore and come back home before Namjoon did. He'd also ask his brother where his hunting grounds for the time being were to make sure he avoided that area next time he went on another one of his adventures. When Namjoon asked him once why he'd inquired such in the first place, Taehyung merely told him there was something he wanted Namjoon to pick up in the area, as another one of the souvenirs he'd bring home for his dear younger brother.

He was fortunate to not have met anyone who might cause him any trouble—Japanese people were busy folk who couldn't care less about much around them, even if a ghoul was walking amongst their crowds. Of course, he's also spotted ghoul investigators before, since he remembered facing such people before during his time working under Aogiri. The first time he encountered them since he started this little habit of his was around dusk, and Taehyung had just picked up the scent of another ghoul in the area but couldn’t pinpoint an exact location, until he saw a small group of men sprinting past him and turning towards a shadowed alleyway with silver suitcases in their gloved hands. He could only guess what those men were up to.

He had since made a little game for himself to spot the potential doves hiding in the crowds he was also walking along with just so he could avoid them should they ever turn their attention to him, but it seemed that he's remained undetected so far, to the point that he doubted they knew of his existence at all.

What was peculiar was that he had yet to encounter any other  _ ghouls  _ so far, except for one time.

He'd wandered into a secondhand manga shop—it was his third time here, and though he didn't like visiting the same places twice, he often passed this place on his way home, plus the fact that this was the only place where he could find volumes of this new series he just got into. In fact, he was looking for the latest volume of said series, eyes scanning through the rows of books as his shoulders began to deflate in hopelessness, until he saw something from the corner of his eye—a limb wrapped in faded blue, stretching out towards Taehyung, one of the manga books in his hand, closed with its cover exposed.

He was cautious at first, eyebrows furrowing as he turned to look at the cover of the volume and widened his eyes when he realized it was the one he'd been looking for, then trailed up the blue-clothed arm to see a young man about his age, just a few centimeters shorter than him, with small, half-hooded eyes and a cheeky close-lipped smile.

"I've seen you here a couple of times before," the person informed him, tilting the book in his hand. "And every time I come here to read, you always beat me to it and so I have to wait until you're finished to pick up where I left off, but it seems _I've_ beaten you to it this time around, so here."

"T-thanks." Taehyung took the volume, flipped it over and examined it in detail to make sure this fellow hadn't fooled or played a trick on him, then smiling upon realizing his luck. He almost dived right into book until he noticed the young man beside him still had his hand out, this time with an open palm, and it took him an extra second to realize that he was going for a handshake.

So he took the person's hand in his and gave it a solid shake.

"Park Jimin," the stranger introduced himself, his voice soft and high-pitched for his age, his smile turning wider a bit more than before. "I get that it's a weird name, but I'm not from around here. Moved here from Korea a little while ago. Nice to meet you."

Taehyung's eyes almost popped out of his skull as soon as he heard the mention of his home country coming from this stranger's mouth.

"You're Korean, too?" Taehyung exclaimed, in Korean, almost a bit too loud, louder than expected in a mange store, in which he paled as soon as he realized this and looked around to make sure no one was too bothered from his excessive volume. "Kim Taehyung. It’s a  _ great  _ pleasure to meet you!”

The stranger's—Jimin—eyes also widened in a mix of surprise and delight, mouth hanging open for a bit until he recovered from the initial shock, laughing lightly at the untimely coincidence as well.

"Ah, 진짜!" he exclaimed softly, pulling his hand away, eyes darting elsewhere while shaking his head in disbelief. "A ghoul, an otaku... Korean, too!"

And then Taehyung froze on the spot, his posture stiffening and his entire figure turning tense, until Jimin noticed his change in demeanor, hands reaching out to grasp Taehyung's forearms.

"No, no, no! Calm down! I'm a ghoul, too!" Jimin reassured, his voice still higher pitched but hushed, knowing full well the sensitivity of such topic. Taehyung dropped his shoulders. "You didn't smell me?"

Well, if Taehyung had to be honest to himself, he was too focused on trying to search for that damn volume to even pay attention to anything much happening around him. He might've even ignored Jimin for at least a few minutes before finally noticing the latter's outstretched arm.

After a moment of hesitation, Taehyung shook his head, and Jimin sighed exasperatedly.

"Well, for what it's worth, your secret's safe with me, as much as it is safe with you, all right?" the shorter man said, shrugging. "I would've ignored you if you were just another human. Stayed away from you, even. But it's not often that I see another ghoul around here, especially in a place like this, so I thought that maybe we could, you know... be friends or something."

And that was what they did. Jimin had been the first ghoul he encountered since leaving Aogiri, and the first one whom he didn't meet through Namjoon—he's met the leader of the ward they were staying at before, but just once, and had yet to meet any other ghoul even in their ward—and soon, Jimin became the first  _ friend  _ he had since moving to Tokyo.

Jimin was an interesting individual. He wasn't like any of the other ghouls he's ever met before—more passive than aggressive, unusual for ghouls. One of the 'innocent' ones—perhaps more innocent than Taehyung, considering what the latter has done as part of Aogiri. Jimin has stated before he didn't hunt as often as other ghouls, too, preferring scraps compared to having to kill humans with his own hands. He never mentioned anything much about his past, either, just that his parents were no longer around—orphaned ghouls were a common occurrence when doves hunted down their parents without a single care as to what happened to the adults' children—and that he managed to get himself into school somehow. An art school, because of his talent in performing arts, but a school nonetheless.

Jimin has also mentioned the existence of certain establishments that helped ghouls in a much more non-hostile manner than some  _ other  _ organizations—that was, establishments that welcomed both humans  _ and  _ ghouls, providing food to members of the latter population who were just as unwilling to kill other people as Jimin was.

A ghoul café, so to speak, as well as a similar-functioning restaurant, both located in the 20th ward.

"I'll take you to the restaurant some time for a good meal, yeah?" Jimin offered then, when he first mentioned it to Taehyung. The two were hanging out on the roof of a suburban house, gazing into the distant skyline and its sunset backdrop, a soft breeze blowing against their faces. Taehyung was hugging his knees to himself while Jimin was sitting closer to the edge, draping one arm over his bent knee while his other foot was dangling freely in the air over the edge. "Don't worry, the food's on me—I've just been employed there recently, so I'm hoping the owner can give me some sort of employee's discount while we're there. And besides, you look like you could use a decent, proper meal for once."

He had no idea, Taehyung thought to himself, and smiled fondly at his friend, trusting him to keep to his promise.

Maybe he could even invite Namjoon out with them. A nice dinner in a warm environment—just like the good old times back in Seoul, when his family was still smiling and whole. It was something that the two brothers  _ definitely  _ needed.

But Jimin's promise came fulfilled earlier than Taehyung had expected; Jimin had been the one to track him down back to the safehouse and his small face was peeking through the boards of the window that Taehyung usually jumped out of to escape the grey walls, startling the latter when he was just about to head outside once again.

"C'mon," Jimin urged with a hushed tone, his face lighting up as soon as he spotted his friend in the same clothes that he wore when they first met—a blue, long-sleeved shirt and trousers. "Let's go to the restaurant now. I already told the owner I'll be inviting you over after my shift is finished, so he'll be expecting us. C'mon, hurry, or we'll miss the train!"

Though a bit saddened that he didn't even get the chance to talk to Namjoon about this—he had yet to even muster the courage to tell his brother that he'd been sneaking out the past few months and made himself a friend who was inviting them over for dinner—Taehyung nodded and rushed over to the window, tearing the boards away while Jimin climbed back down the building, waiting at the base for his friend to join him there.

Once he did, he took Taehyung's hand and led him to a nearby subway station, which Taehyung had never been in before since he never had the money to take the subway. Jimin bought the tickets for them, and led his friend through the entire process until the two young ghouls boarded the train itself, granting Taehyung yet another experience of the Tokyo life that he never thought he could have, considering his lack of funds.

And of course, Jimin took quick notice of this and began to laugh and tease Taehyung about it before the latter started to tease him back. It was strange—sitting on the train surrounded by average working joes and students heading home from work and school respectively, and anyone who glanced their way wouldn't assume the two of them were ghouls, but instead just normal teenagers, joking around and chatting about random topics, maybe even exchange students since they were speaking in a language the majority of the people on that train couldn't recognize.

Jimin stood up just before the train reached its next destination, motioning for Taehyung to join him as they headed for the door, waiting until the cart stopped its motion and the doors hissed open to let some of its passengers out. Taehyung followed Jimin out the train, the latter's hand clamped around his to make sure the two wouldn't lose each other in the stream of people that were rushing about to and from either directions, heading down a flight of stairs and taking several turns towards the station's exit, out into a neighborhood Taehyung didn't recognize.

It felt...  _ different _ here. The smell of humans was more overpowering than the other wards, while he could barely pick up the smell of fellow ghouls from where he stood, despite the sizeable crowd the two ghouls had walked into. The air lacked the tinge of sea salt that he'd breathe in back in the 11th ward—though he should've known that, since the 20th ward where this restaurant was located was furthest from the shoreline while the 11th had been one of the closest. But the difference in the scents he was inhaling from the air wasn't unpleasant nor hunger arousing—it had the opposite effect, really, and he was almost lost in it until Jimin tugged his arm once more, motioning for him to follow his friend once again.

And so he did, walking down the street along with Jimin as the latter started putting in a good word for the establishment he'd been hired in and was heading to, as well as mentioning how nice and considerate and generous his employer was.

"He's like a brother to me," Jimin said with a grin, glancing over his shoulder at Taehyung who was lagging just a little bit behind him. "Well, sometimes he likes to act like a mom, too—more like a doting aunt, actually—but he's been like family to me, and I'm forever grateful when he decided to take me in. He's also a damn good cook, and I still don't understand how since he can't exactly  _ taste,  _ let alone  _ eat  _ any of the food he makes—he's a ghoul, too, you know—but customers always come rushing back, so I think he just has the talent for it. Oh, and he's Korean, too, so don't worry about being too awkward around him. I promise you, you'll love him!"

Jimin then began to slow down his pace once a building with a still-illuminated interior came into view, warm yellow light pouring out of the windows onto the pavement in front of it. It had three floors, the building's exterior was pale-painted brick, with two outdoor tables and two metal chairs each underneath the similarly-colored awning, along with several potted plants and a standing chalkboard sign with the restaurant's menu written in chalk.

Despite the sign pinned to the wooden door said 'Closed', Jimin shoved it open and continued to hold it open for Taehyung to enter. The cold prick of the air outside was dispelled as soon as he was inside, and Taehyung felt himself enveloped in immense warmth that had some sort of a homey feeling to it, with the golden lights bathing him and the familiar tinge of human flesh in the air that he breathed inside the restaurant.

He immediately took notice of a figure near the back of the room, holding a broom in their hands and sweeping the floors after what seemed to be a busy day of serving customers. The figure appeared to be male, with short black hair and wearing a grey vest and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, dark trousers and a light brown apron tied around their waist, his back turned to the two ghouls who'd just entered. Taehyung also couldn't help noticing this person's wide shoulders and rather tall stature, almost reminiscent of someone from his past whom he hadn't yet to meet again for far too long now.

_ It couldn't be... _

Then Jimin's voice came from behind him.

"Jin- hyung ! It's Jimin—we're here!"

The figure then stopped what he was doing and turned around to face the two ghouls, eyes meeting Taehyung's, which blew wide in disbelief and glistened under the warm glow of the overhead lamps as soon as he recognized the face he missed far, far too much.

" Hyung ?"

His oldest brother, Kim Seokjin, smiled at him. "Taehyung- ah . It's been a while."

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are always appreciated!
> 
> Make sure to check out the [main story](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15443370)!


End file.
